This invention relates to a small-scale housing such as a Nativity scene enclosure, a dollhouse, and the like, and particularly, to such a housing which is of knockdown construction which may be easily assembled and disassembled, repeatedly.
Enclosures which function as miniature Nativity scenes are well-known and have been widely used in the art, essentially since the time of Christ. In the prior art, these enclosures or housings, which are provided as complete, permanent structures, have several disadvantages with respect to commercial manufacture and consumer use. For example, even though the enclosures are a model or a miniature replica, they are relatively large--e.g., so as to accommodate the miniature figurines, the manger and other articles disposed therein. Accordingly, their relatively large size requires large shipping containers which are not only expensive to transport but also require substantial retail store shelf space, as well as consumer storage space when the enclosure is stored for the next Holiday season. Further, these permanent structures require additional manufacturing steps to assembly and suitably fasten the respective members such as by means of nails, screws, staples or glueing, as is well known in the art. This additional labor only adds additional expense to the ultimate consumer.
These and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention wherein there is provided a housing which takes the form of a replica of a larger structure such as the Nativity scene stable dwelling. The housing is provided of knockdown construction which may be rigidly assembled without using nails, glue or other conventional fasteners and which may be stored in a relatively flat package when the unit is disassembled for some future use.